I Know What I Want to Teach but How Can I Know What They Are Going to Learn?

Abstract

Through reflections on my own history of learning and observing significant teaching episodes of others in teaching science I argue for a transformative programme of science teaching which is knowledgeable and non-presumptive. In doing so I draw on Hannah Arendt’s depiction of praxis as central to the collaborative enterprise and openness of learning, and Emanuel Levinas’ conceptualisation of the Other in creating an ontology of nature which is non-dominant. In neoliberal education systems driven by an instrumental and corporatist STEM agenda such possibilities might seem remote but placing social justice at the very core of pedagogy, resistance to short-term instrumental outcomes can be successfully achieved through ‘collaborative resonance’.